The Adrian school board wrapped up the second round of interviews for superintendent on Wednesday, quizzing finalist Robert Behnke about how he would continue Adrian's progress and help the district get to the next level.

Behnke is the assistant superintendent for instructional services at Northville Public Schools; before that, he worked at Huron Valley schools for 14 years. The other finalist, Catherine Cost, assistant superintendent of K-12 instructional support services at Farmington Public Schools, had her second interview Tuesday.

"The time that I've spent getting to know Adrian has been a rich experience," Behnke said.

Last weekend, Behnke said, he attended the Adrian Symphony Orchestra's concert Friday night and "White Christmas" at the Croswell Opera House on Saturday.

He has also enjoyed the connections he's made with people in Adrian during the interview process, he said.

"I hear the pride in the parents' voices," he said. "I hear the pride in the members of the community, and I hear the pride in the students, that things are different than they were a while ago."

At the same time, he said, there is a sense that "we can do better."

Behnke named "relational trust" between the administration and employees as one area that will need work. That can be addressed through "transparency and open and honest communication with all stakeholders," he said.

Board president Jed Engle asked Behnke to describe his first 90 days as superintendent.

Behnke said the first step would be to "immerse myself in the community," but at the same time, "I'm not going to be one that's going to sit back and wait a year." He said the district will need to act soon on the budget, contract negotiations and enrollment.

He said he would begin by meeting with the board, teachers' union, principals, parent-teacher associations and student groups, and that the turnaround time for him to get on track needs to be within his first month on the job.

Behnke brought his experiences at Northville and other districts into a number of his answers.

For instance, when asked how he would enforce accountability in the district, he discussed his experience getting teachers at all grade levels on board with voice amplification technology by showing them the data indicating it improved achievement, working with teacher technology leaders to make sure everyone knew how to use the technology, and then having principals follow up to make sure it was being used consistently whenever it was appropriate.

He also discussed partnerships his current district has formed with Oakland Community College.

Another major topic of discussion during the interview was bringing students back to Adrian. Behnke said that in some of his conversations with people in the district, he found a feeling that while the issue had been studied, nobody had developed a plan or taken action.

If parents are looking for smaller-school settings, he said, there are ways to duplicate the selling points of a smaller school in a larger setting. For example, he said, Lakeland High School in Huron Valley grouped its English, social studies and math classrooms into one area for ninth and 10th grades and another area for 11th and 12th grades, which created more of a small-school feeling, made it easier for teachers to work together to help individual students, and reduced bullying.

He also talked about a system in Huron Valley that made it easier to spread good news about the district by having someone in each building who acted as a media contact and was trained in things like taking photos suitable for publication.

Asked to describe the roles of the board, superintendent and administrative staff, Behnke said the board develops policies and sets the guiding principles."Your role is not to run the day-to-day operations of the district. I need you to leave that to me," he said.

He also said he will communicate honestly with the board.

"Conversations are going to be difficult and I'm going to tell you things you may not want to hear in terms of what teachers or students or the community are saying," he said, "but you need to be well informed to make the best decisions."

He said his own role in dealing with district staff would be to empower them and not to micromanage their day-to-day operations.

Discussing the role of testing in education, he said schools need to not "overtest," but still need to make sure teachers have test data available to assess students' strengths and weaknesses. Besides data, he said, teachers also need to have the tools to help students across the entire range of ability, including "that group in the middle that many people forget about."

In response to a question about how long Adrian could expect him to stay, Behnke said he is looking for a place to settle down.

"What I'm looking for is a place to spend the last half of my career in a district that's right for me," he said.